ZEM Performing Arts & Chanson

1 (solo) performer

Indoor and outdoor

Singer (female)

1,5 hour

1m50 by 1m50

FR, NL, EN

ZEM singer and harpist brings Dutch-language cabaret and French chansons. This special singer-songwriter is indispensable for your event. She won the audience award of TV5MONDE in The Hague. Book her now via Showbird!

"ZEM, pop and soul sounds with roots in Ethiopia. Sometimes subdued listening to life stories, sometimes jazzy, sometimes exuberant rousing rhythms with spontaneous hand clapping and dancing in the front rows from the square." (Het Nieuwsblad)

ZEM, the Ghent harpist and singer-songwriter won the prestigious TV5MONDE audience award in 2018 at the Diligentia Theater in The Hague. At the Concours de la Chanson Alliance Française, she was the only finalist to perform a song she wrote herself. "GAND" is about how Ghent and its rebellious history inspires her.

Stages: Diligentia Theater The Hague, Koningin Elisabethzaal Antwerpen, Concertzaal Vooruit Gent, Via Via Brussel, Het Depot Leuven, Gentse Feesten - Laurentplein, Bij Sint Jacobs, Biekorf Brugge, CC De Steiger Menen, Bij de Vieze Gasten, CC De Centrale, Brugges festival,...

ZEM was born in Ethiopia. She never knew her father and her mother dies when she is three. She ends up in an orphanage from where she is adopted by a Belgian/Dutch family. She grows up in Ghent. From the age of 8, she takes a classical harp course (private student Suzanna Mildonian), with piano as a second instrument. In addition, she obtains a master's degree in sociology (Ugent). At 16, she chooses hip-hop and piano as a singer-songwriter and singer, from which grows a musical taste that ranges from soul over pop (including a participation in The Voice of Flanders in 2014) to intimate French chansons.

In 2015, she decides to combine all these styles and embark on an artistic path of her own, also doing everything herself under her own management. In 2017, she returns to her first, great love: the harp. From then on, everything falls together and she develops a musical style all her own in which classical harp becomes hip-hop and lovely chanson electronics. In February 2018, she gives her first performance with her harp at Centrale. In March 2018, she wins TV5MONDE's prestigious audience award at the "Concours de la Chanson Alliance Française" in The Hague. She was the only finalist to perform a song she wrote herself. "GAND" is about how Ghent and its rebellious history inspires her.

ZEM was booked by, among others: ELLE Magazine, Porsche, Breitling, VOKA, AB-Inbev, ING, Deloitte, MASTERS EXPO A'dam, World Resources Forum (Geneva), PAN Kunstforum Niederrhein (D), VPRO -Tv, Pax Christi International, Les Machines de l'ile Nantes (Fr), DHL, Roularta Mediagroup, OVAM, World's 50 Best Restaurants, Markant, Sterck-Magazine, TVH, Konecranes, Dierickx Bank, CIO of the Year, BOZAR , Credendo, Lions Club, Van Olmen & Wynant, ...

Share this act